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Did you know that our minerals influence our hormones?
Copper (Feminine) and Zinc (Masculine)
Copper- estrogen- feminine
Zinc- testosterone- masculine
When minerals become imbalanced, our hormones can also become imbalanced, and this can also directly influence our internal masculine/feminine balance.
We all have an inner masculine and an inner feminine. The goal is to be balanced with these energies. To achieve this, we balance the minerals, heal the liver, detox the body of toxins that interfere with nutrient absorption, and we can also actively work on healing emotional traumas that have imbalanced our masculine/feminine energies.
It is MUCH more common to be copper dominant vs zinc dominant (I don’t think I have ever seen anyone that is truly zinc dominant through HTMA or labs in my years doing this). If copper is too dominant, we can be over-emotional, spacey, prone to anxiety and OCD, but we can also have personality characteristics like being extra caring, empathetic, child-like, and sensitive. Since copper is a feminine mineral, it is essential for women and mothers to have healthy cycles and pregnancies, and it supports the maternal bond with children (manganese also plays a role in this too).
Zinc is a more masculine mineral- it supports physical strength and vitality and is absolutely essential for male hormonal balance. It is much harder to have an overload of zinc compared to copper, so there isn’t really a set symptoms for what zinc overload would look like. Men need almost double the zinc that women do, but this can be hard to obtain in our modern world due to gut issues (we need stomach acid to utilize zinc correctly especially from protein rich foods), heavy metals (since they can displace and antagonize zinc), and copper issues (since this can also displace zinc).
For most people, the LACK of zinc is causing the health issues (whereas with copper it is both the high levels of unbound copper AND the low levels of biounavailable copper).
Left vs Right Side of the Body
Are you one that has noticed that almost ALL of your health issues are on one side of the body? For example- say your left eye vision is weaker than your right eye. You also tend to get rashes on your left arm. You have a big varicose vein on your left leg. But oddly enough, nothing ever seems to show up on your right side. Left side = feminine, right side = masculine. Even in homeopathy they often make references to left or right sides of the body to determine remedies, but I didn’t realize WHY until recently. Since homeopathy is energy medicine it makes sense that it would seek to balance these energies as well.
You can read this awesome post from Aligned Nature about masculine vs feminine energies and why the balance is so crucial. There is a great chart in there too about what personality traits go with each too.
These energies can become imbalanced for several reasons: a big one is the copper/zinc imbalance as mentioned above. That is a huge physical reason for this imbalance. But trauma of any kind can also influence this imbalance. If you dealt with childhood abuse, or you had 1 or both parents absent and basically raised yourself it is almost a given that these energies are imbalanced.
For example, feeling the need to constantly work, being overly independent, not trusting anyone but yourself, and burning yourself out is a huge sign that you are more in the masculine energies. If you struggle to just BE, cannot take care of yourself (but take care of everyone else), and feel like you need to be busy to the point of exhaustion every single day to keep others happy- this is an imbalance in these energies!
I am not an expert on this topic myself, and I focus more on the nutritional side of things, but I really wanted to bring this up as it can be an eye-opening topic for many people. I know I had major AH HA moments when I learned about all of this. It’s just another aspect of healing trauma and healing yourself as a whole.
More reading:
- Healing Edge about Copper Levels (I do not recommend trying to balance copper by taking zinc or antagonizing it- check the article below for the modern approach to balancing copper. This article was just great to show you the aspects of copper overload and physical, mental, and emotional symptoms.)
- My article on copper balancing and how to approach it
- I recently found this Instagram page by Victoria Whitley and was blown away by the content that she puts out. She has many posts about balancing masculine/feminine energies- click here to see A Women too Much in Her Masculine symptoms. Please know that if seeing images of a woman’s body offends you, this is not the page to go to. At first it made me uncomfortable but I realized that is because of my own imbalance with feminine energies. I applaud her for being brave and challenging the norm. This post is great too about the Old vs New Paradigm of working.
- This post has a great description of masculine vs feminine energies and why we need to be BALANCED
The body is a whole and we must treat it as such! I have my Bachelor of Science in Natural Health Sciences, certificates in Herbal Studies from Herbal Academy, and I am constantly learning more about health to help my clients and followers.
My goal is to help you unleash your own inner healer! You already hold the power to heal inside you. My role is as a guide to help you realize this potential.